This shutting down of the pipeline has been building as Rezlooper said since April. I've been following the different Nations water protests for a
long time now and this new interest is eclipsing the 'Idle No More" movement.

Grandma Josephine has been walking around the Great Lakes for many years now and is one of the first to fight for all humans to have clean water. indigenousrising.org...

With a copper pail of water in one hand and a staff in the other, Josephine Mandamin, an Anishabaabewe grandmother took on a sacred walk,
traversing over 10,900 miles around each of the Great Lakes. She is known as the “Water Walker.”

According to the Michigan Sea Grant, the Great Lakes shoreline is equal to almost 44% of the circumference of the earth. “When you see someone
walking with a pail of water, you wonder, where is she going with that water.”

So the message is, water is very precious, and I will go to any lengths to and direction to carry the water to the people.”

“As women, we are carriers of the water. We carry life for the people. So when we carry that water, we are telling people that we will go any
lengths for the water. We’ll probably even give our lives for the water if we have to. We may at some point have to die for the water, and we
don’t want that,” said Mandamin.

Mandamin joined the team of indigenous representatives from the Indigenous Environmental Network at the People’s Climate March during the week of
September 18th to the 24th. “Why I’m here is because I really feel for the water. And to give the message to people that Water is a human
right.”

In British Columbia different nations have been fighting the pipelines, hydro dams, mining tailing ponds as well as the Navajo with the Rio Tinto land
grab. Facebook has been a phenomenal way to network and for different groups to get the word out. Say what you will about FB but news flies like the
speed of light.

The Standing Rock Sioux are fighting for each and every one of us in an effort to keep clean fresh water available.

Faith Spotted Eagle slept. In her sleep, she saw her grandmother lying on a table, wrapped in a blanket with her white braids on her chest.

Her sister appeared. “What’s going on?” Spotted Eagle asked.

“I don’t know. They told us to come.”

A door opened; a room full of people, ancestors, stared silently. She felt in their stares a sadness, but also a strength. Another door opened to
another room with the same scene. She knew that if she were to keep opening doors, all the rooms in the house would be filled with those watchful,
silent ancestors.

Spotted Eagle closed her eyes, unsure of what do to, but knowing that it was impolite to stare back. Then her grandmother’s voice came to her.

“Look at the treaties. There’s something in the treaties.”

That’s when she woke up.

Spotted Eagle is a Dakota/Nakota elder of the Ihanktonwan tribe in South Dakota. She wears skirts that brush her ankles, and her white braids hang
over her shoulders like her grandmother’s — but when she puts on sunglasses, she looks like a badass.

She didn’t know exactly what the dream meant, but she believed it was the answer to a problem she’d been thinking about for some time: How to
prevent the Keystone XL pipeline from going through Lakota traditional territory, sacred land.

“Who will be able to stand with us?” she thought. “We have to stand with somebody.”

She prayed. And then she remembered the 1863 treaty between the Ihanktonwan and the Pawnee that was the first recorded peace treaty between tribes.
She also remembered that throughout the last several decades alliances of natives and non-natives in the Northern Plains had formed and re-formed to
defeat threats to land and water. Recently, Lakota elders had made moves to resurrect a new Cowboy Indian Alliance – this time to take on Keystone
XL.

In late January of 2013, exactly 150 years after the signing of that first treaty, Spotted Eagle and other activists convened tribal representatives
from across the continent on the Ihanktonwan reservation. Their purpose was to ratify the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands
and Keystone XL, a document based on that first 1863 peace treaty. It represented unprecedented unified action from North American indigenous people
with one new addition: This new treaty also included a few of the ranchers from the Great Plains, who feel their lands are also threatened by the tar
sands pipeline.

This image by Michael Horse was requested by Winona LaDuke from Honor the Earth for the Cowboys & Indians Alliance demonstration at the White
House in 2014. It depicts cowboys and Native Americans fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline at the White House. Also depicted on the top right side of
the image is the Washington Monument.

Thank you for posting this thread. I logged into ATS a week ago for the first time in over a month thinking this topic would of been one of the top
stories and ongoing discussions here. I find it alarmingly strange that this very important issue had not been brought to attention on this site until
you did so yesterday (Sep, 2). Again, thank you for caring enough about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and recognizing the importance of this issue to
do so. I bookmarked your informative article (you authored?) that details the crux of the issue and outlines the affect it is and will be having on
the people at Standing Rock for future reference.

None of this is making the main stream media and yet a few ranchers protest on federal land and that was the top of the headlines for a month.
I wonder why?

It has been making the mainstream media news here in Canada since the middle of August. That is part of the reason I was surprised it had not been
brought to attention on ATS. I guess the lack of news coverage in the States explains why that is so.

Here are some links of ongoing reports on the Standing Rock issue from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) - which is funded by CDN tax
dollars (the people) and thus the most go to source for TV and online news media in Canada (national news). If you have the time to read the articles,
please let me know if there are any conflicting or distorted narratives being sold in these articles.

"Work halted on pipeline Enbridge spending $1.5B US to buy into" published on Aug 18, 2016:

I'll tell you why ... because this is a protest against oil and gas. Oil and Gas are a major part of the elite that control the media. It couldn't be
more obvious. This is a very important story and yet, media silence.

I agree. It is a sad and unfortunate reality. What you state is true. The censorship extends to social media platforms as well. I sent out a tweet
about a week ago with the hashtag "StandingRock" in support and to bring attention to the issue and then immediately went to the live trending news
feed to read other tweets to source information. It never showed up. It doesn't show much tweets for that hashtag even when you manually search it and
go to the news feed. Test it out yourself...

The protest happening in Standing Rock affects not only the Sioux Tribe, but also the state of N. Dakota and America as a whole. It not just a First
Nations People issue. In fact, it is a global concern in my eyes.

From your link:

“Protecting water and our sacred places has always been at the center of our cause. The Indian encampment on the Cannonball grows daily, with
nearly 90 tribes now represented. Many of us have been here before, facing the destruction of homelands and waters, as time and time again tribes were
ignored when we opposed projects like the Dakota Access pipeline.

The protest taking place reflects true activism. It's the fight against it by government along with the big oil and gas companies is the absurd
part.

*******

Btw, there is a current thread in another forum here on ATS about a grown man knocking out another grown man that took place in France that has
50+ flags and close to 800 comments (38 pages) mostly by Americans. Let that fact marinate when weighing the gravity of this current issue, my
friend.

edit on 3-9-2016 by Involutionist because: Grammar and punctuation SUCKS!

Cannon Ball (United States) (AFP) - Protesters camping near Native American lands in North Dakota to protest the construction of an oil pipeline
clashed late Saturday with construction company workers they blamed for destroying ancient sites.

Hundreds of protesters confronted a bulldozer crew in an area known as Cannon Ball, amid the vast grasslands of the northern US state.

Looks like things are coming to a head.

On Saturday, protesters were suddenly alerted to renewed digging, a day after the tribe filed evidence in court of dozens of newly discovered
artifacts, grave markers and sacred sites.

The tribe said in a statement that a two-mile stretch was destroyed before the bulldozer crew was confronted and stopped.

"This demolition is devastating," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman David Archambault said in a statement. "These grounds are the resting places of
our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced."

I didn't see anywhere in the article if the company was legally wrong to continue to construction, but it seems that things are beginning to escalate
to a level reminiscent of the altercations between strikers and strike-busters. Initial reports state that a few private security guards were injured
by weapons fashioned from fence posts and poles. Protestors were pepper sprayed and had dogs set upon them.

Some of us care deeply, these people are fighting for ALL OF US,whether we can be there or not.

This winter will be telling, if they can keep it up?
I sincerely hope so!!

Paypal is your friend ( hint-hint-)

Fortunately or not as you see it FB is where most of the info is shared. Pls feel free to PM me if you have a FB account and I will hook you up?
If not I will keep doing my best to post what I can here.

Saturdays violence was precipitated by the digging up of graves and other sacred sites.

This interview was recorded on September 3, 2016. Former Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Tim Mentz explains the
destruction of burial grounds and sacred sites by Dakota Access Pipeline LLC. This sacred site is what people were trying to protect when Energy
Transfer Partners brought in aggressive dogs to attack unarmed people.
Read more at
indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com...

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